


Lady

by dabs_into_oblivion



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-29 03:54:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18770665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dabs_into_oblivion/pseuds/dabs_into_oblivion
Summary: Her first dog was killed. He won't let that happen again.





	Lady

**Author's Note:**

> my first time writing this pairing. also, is it just me or was she flirting with him in 8x04?

When Arya brings a litter of puppies home, Sansa loses her composure. It's as she sits, slumped, hands trying and failing to cover her tears, that she hears a gruff voice say, "I'll take one."

She peeps through her fingers and watches as Clegane picks up one of the dogs, impossibly small against his broadness, and strokes its head with a finger. She shrinks back into herself almost immediately, knowing he won't want her seeing, and sure enough, he's berating Arya for staring.

"Don't you have anything better to do, little bitch?"

And Arya smiles. "Sansa, do you want one?"

Clegane grunts as he sits down beside her, holding the puppy in his lap. She's so engrossed in peeking through her fingers at it that she forgets to cover her face, forgets to hide her tears, and eventually sticks out a hand and, slowly, gently, touches the puppy's head.

She misses how he looks at her, his eyes soft, his mouth relaxed and even, possibly, beginning to smile.

"You can't have this one," he rumbles. "She's mine."

She looks up at him. Even when they sit, he's taller. "What will you name her?"

He meets her eyes as he says, "Lady."

\----------------

Lady is growing, though she'll never be as big as the first Lady, and she loves playing with Sansa. Sometimes the two of them go on long walks into the forest, and just as Sandor is about to go after them, there they are, Lady's tail wagging and his lady's eyes shining. He is well and truly fucked, and he doesn't care.

\----------------

The next time she cries, it's because Jon has reminded her that she needs to marry, to bear children to carry on the Stark name. Lady nuzzles her, presses her nose into Sansa's elbow, and Sandor stands looking at her, aching for her, needing to help her and not being able to.

Eventually she looks up and gives him a smile. "Will you sit, please?"

He sits next to her because he wants to and because Lady is there and he can use that as an excuse if he needs to, but when she slides closer to him, pressing herself into his side, he almost forgets how to breathe.

She looks up at him. "Have you ever thought about marriage?"

When he answers, his voice is raspier than usual. "Once, milady."

"When?" She's breathing fast and shallow, her eyes on his. She wets her lips, and his eyes track every movement.

Instead of answering, he cups her face in his hands. "I told you you can't have my dog, so why the fuck do you spend so much time with her?"

She laughs, a short, sweet sound. "Maybe I want to spend time with you both."

He might be shaking. He can't tell. It might be her. He says, "I know why you were crying." She looks at him, nods, tells him she can't put it off any longer. He says, "Have you thought about marriage since the war, milady?" He doesn't say, _Marry me._ He can't ask her to tie herself to him in such a binding way.

But when she answers, blushing, looking at him in a way that tells him all he needs to know, "I have, but he wouldn't want me," he kisses that thought away, along with the tears. When she leans against him and whispers, "Be my husband," he doesn't run. He doesn't curse. He doesn't argue. And when she tells him her direwolf was named Lady, he kisses her again, until she can't think, until she forgets the pain and the death and the game that Cersei Lannister and Littlefinger taught her to play. And he loses himself in her, and he forgets too.


End file.
